WVU, OSU Researchers Get $2 Million For Shale Work

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — Researchers from Ohio State and West Virginia universities have won a combined $2 million grant to study microbial biodiversity in underground shale-gas formations. The bulk of the National Science Foundation award, $1.65 million, goes to Ohio State. Starting in January, scientists will core samples to study a rarely examined habitat: kilometer-deep black shale.

That ecosystem's biodiversity could be at risk from the rapid growth of deep gas drilling. WVU gets $351,000 to study chemical and isotopic biomarkers that micro-organisms leave behind during their growth. Researchers say their work is the first of its kind and that it's important to understand the micro-organisms living in the shale because it has implications for current and past life on our planet. It also could help indicate when man-made changes occur.